Was thinking a bit about utilization of aircraft and launch bases in FSO.
It seems to me when looking at our squad's orders from week to week, there's a tendency to only use some of the active launch bases. I know I've seen it where everyone rolls from one or two active aircraft carriers out of half a dozen (during the Okinawa campaign, for example).
I'll grab my asbestos undies now, but:
Restrict the total number of aircraft that can launch from a base, dependent on the base type.
Say you have a large field, two medium fields and a small field that are active for launch. You have a MAX of 325 pilots (including the +2 over allowance) on your side. The CM specifies that of those four launch bases:
- The Large field can launch 125 pilots
- The Medium fields can each launch 80
- The Small field can launch 40
This would NOT include formations for buffs, however Buffs could be restricted to medium or large airfields only. The end result is that the CiC will need to more carefully consider how he assembles his defense groups and strike packages.
A similar method can be used on CVs. Altogether, carriers would be permitted no more than 90 aircraft. Of that 90 the carrier can launch up to:
- 36 fighters (F6F, F4Us, F4Fs, FM-2s, Seafires, Zeros, etc. Fighters can carry ordinance at CiC discretion).
- 36 dive-bombers (SBDs, D3As).
- 18 torpedo planes (TBM and B6N).
The above can be modified based on the needs of the setup. For example, reducing the number of dive-bombers and increasing the number of fighters, as was the historical case on US carriers late in the war (if you're interested, I pulled these numbers from the average complement of the
Essex-class carriers).
Just a thought, but could help put a bit more strategy into the setups.